Require royalty-free licenses for standards

I think that W3C standards should NOT contain patented IP that requires fees
to implement, as this will prevent many smaller developers (and open source
projects) from implementing them.  The risk here is creating a "large
business"-only vision of the web, where the community at large no longer has
the power to create software that interacts with (and can be a drop-in
replacement for) the major server software.

I do think the software patent issue has to be addressed, and to do this I
believe that W3C members who want to have their patented IP used for W3C
reccomendationss should grant a royalty-free license for the use of
implementing the reccomendation.  If they refuse to do so, then the IP
should not become part of a W3C reccomendation (the company can still
promote it as a standard, but just not recognized by the W3C).

Thank you,

Isaac Reuben

Received on Tuesday, 2 October 2001 16:18:42 UTC